Airship.



0. E. MYERS.

AIRSHIP.

APPLIGATION FILED APR. 8, 1908.

Patented Nov. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

, WITNESSES By M "5a A TTOHNEYS- O. E. MYERS.

AIRSHIP.

APPLICATION FILED APR. s, 1908.

Patented Nov. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES 0) 6/ i $11122 %m ATTORNEYS in the engine or motor.--

cant noses Manna, or ERANKI'OERT, New YORK.

AIRSHiP.

Specification of letters iatent.

Application-filed April '8, 1908.

Patented Nov. 11, 1913. Serial No. 425,942.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, CARL E. MYERS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Frankfort, in the county of Herkimler and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Airship, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to airships and especially to such asemploy gas bags to give form is maintained-by means of gas-inflated them buoyancy 1n the air.

The invention contemplatesthe use of an; explosion engine for propelling the airship, and one object is to provide an arrangement whereby the exhaust gases from the. engine may pass into the gas bag to alfect the buoyancy or equilibrium thereof.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved steering devices for the airship.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved means for insuring that the gas bag will maintain its normal shape at its ends under heavy wind pressures.

A, further object of the invention is to provide an arrangement whereby the gas contained in the gas bag may be used as a fuel The invention consists in the construction and combination of parts to be more fully described. hereinafter and particularly set forth in the "claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures, w

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the gas bag of an air ship constructed ac.

cording to my invention; Fig, 2 is a section through'the lower portion of.the gas bag upon an enlarged scale; this view is diagrammatic, and illustrates the relation between the motor'or gas engine and the gas bag; in this view certain parts are shown in elevation and others are broken away;; EFig.

' 3 is a perspective showing the underside of the upper wall of the gas bag, and illustrating a valve and the novel means for controlling the same; and Fig. 4 is a view similar to Big/3 but representing a ripping strip which why he removed inordhr to al- .low the gas within the bag to escape suddenly so that the air ship may sink to the ground; this view is for the purpose of illustrating the novel means for operating theripping strip.

Referring more particularly to the parts,

bulbs or heads 4, having substantially the form shown. Thesebulbs may be flexible or of non-collapsible materialy'the'y are substantially spherical at their inner or butt ends, and pointed at their outer ends, so as to give the desired shape to the ends ofthe gas bag. The pointed ends of the bulbs lie against the innerside of -th'e wall of the gas bag at this part, as shown.

On its lower side the gas bag is provided with ballonnets or inner gas-bags 5 and '6;

one of these gas bags is located. at the rear *of the middle line of the gas-b ag, and the other just forward of this l1ne. These bags are formed of some suitable collapsible textile material, and each ballonnet is provided with a safety valve 7 through which the contained .gas may escape to the outer air if the pressure rises sufficiently. Between the bags 5 and 6 the wall of the gas-bag is provided 7 on its under side with a similar'sa fety valve 8, which allows the gas from the interior of the gas bagor main compartment to escape into the outer air. This valve is substantially similar in its construction and function to the valves 7. v

Beneath the gas bag .1, I provide elongated car or body 9 which contains the operator of the air ship, and the machinery. This car is supported from the gas-bag any suitable manner, not shown. W1'th1n the car I provide a motor 10 having the form of an engineemp'loying' an explosive fuel uch as asolene. This engine is provide with a y-wheel or balance wheel 11, which operates as a pulley to drive a blower or fan 12throu h the medium ofa suitable.

belt 13. This h ower 12 has a delivery. pipe 14 havin two branches 1'5 and 16-; in other words, a pipe is used. In the branch 15 a valve or damper 17 is providedfor cutting 10s the flow of current through the branch, and a similar valve or damperl S is provided in the other branch 16. The.

fan 12 is provided with an intake 19 which leads from a mufller 20, taking. the exhaust gas from the cylinder of the engine 10. This mu fler has an outlet 21, to the atmosphere. In addition to the intake 19 the fan is similarly provided with an intake 22 for free air. The intake 19 is provided with a valve or damper 23, and a similar valve or damper 24 is provided in the intake 22. Likewise, a 1 damper 25 is provided in the outlet 21 from the muflier.

In addition to its ordinary liquid fuel supply, I provide means for driving the gas engine 10 by means of the gas contained in and forced by pressure from the gas-bag 1, which gas would be of an explosive nature. For this purpose, I connect the interior of the gas-bag with the cylinder of the engine at the proper point by means of a tube 26, asshowff. Within the car or body 9 there are provided screw shafts 27 27 which extend beyond the ends of the body 9, and are provided with propellers 28, 29, as shown. Along the body 9 also extend independent rudder-shafts 30 30 in tight bearings 9 permitting such rudder-shafts to slide along or rotate within said supports, but not movable by the air pressure. Attached to the outer extremities of the rudder-shafts are aeroplanes 30, 31, for steering. The partial o rotation of the rudder-shafts with the crossarms will place the cross-arms and aeroplanes in any position between horizontal and vertical, thus giving the double functions of. aeroplanes and rudders combined. In addition to this balancing effect by wind pressure acting on the vanes 30 and 31, the. shafts which carry them act as counter weights, for they may be slid longitudinally in their bearings 9 evidently if the shaft 30 is slid forwardly with the vane 30 it will tend todepress the front end of the airship, and vice versa. In using the vanes 30 and 31 as counterweights simply,they are placed nearly in a vertical plane so that they do 4 not have any buoyant effect. Changing the position of these vanes longitudinally also change; their effect on the balancing of the airship, for evidently the steering effect will be greater when the vane is moved 5 nearer to the end of the airship. i

On its upper side the wall of the. gas-bag near its middle point is provided with a vent or opening 32, which is normally closed by a valve or flap 33 on the inner side of thewall. This flap or valve may be opened when desired by means of a depending cord 34 which passes through the, bottom wall of the gas-bag and isprovided with a ring 35 hanging within easy reach of the opera- 0 tor within the car. To the cord 34 near its point of attachment to the valve 33, a spring I or elastic cord 36 is attached, the upper end of which spring is attached to the wall of the gas-bag, as shown. In this way the cord 34 is made to hang in a loop near the valve. From this arrangement it will be evident that a slight pullupon' the cord 34 will not open the valve, and it will be necessary, in order to open the valve, to give the cord sufficient pull to extend the spring 36 until all of the looped cord is taken up. This spring 36 and its cooperating parts I consider a safety device, as it prevents the valve from being opened accidentally. A similar safety device 37 is provided near the spring 36, a cord 38, in this case, being attached to a ripping strip 39 which covers a large vent 40 in the wall of the balloon at this point. This cord 38 passes through the bottom of the balloon body, and is also providedwith a ring 41 near the car. The construction of this safety device and its arrangement with respect to the-valve 37 and the strip 39, are very clearly illustrated in p Figs. 3 and 4. The valve 33 is normally held closed by a spring 42,, as shown.

In the operation of the airship, it should be understood that the noncollapsible or high-pressure gas-inflated bulbs 4 at the front and rear maintain the pointed'form of the gas bag against the wind pressure. The gas bag is inflated with an explosive gas I such as hydrogen or some similar explosive mixture of gases which will be lighter than air. By means of the ballonnets 5 and 6, 5 the longitudinal equilibrium of the gas bag may be maintained. This is accomplished, as illustrated in Fig. 2, by controlling the flow of gas or air through the ballonnets.

In Fig. 2, the interior of the ballonnet 6 i is opened to communication with the gas coming from the muflier. In this way the hot gases of the engine are advanced by the fan or by force of exhaust pressure into the ballonnet; hence, the ballonnet 6 will become inflated and increase the buoyancy of the right or forward end of the air ship. An opposite effect could be produced by forcing cold air into the ballonnet 6 instead of a hot gas from the engine. ,This is accom' plished by closing the damper 23, opening the damper 25 and the damper 24, whereupon free air will enter the intake 22 and be passed up to the ballonnet 6 by the fan. From this arrangement, evidently either of the ballonnets 5 or 6 may be charged with hot gas or cold air as desired, and either of them may be opened to the atmosphere to deflate them when desired. a It is found in practice that the consumption of the fuel materially diminishes the weight which is to be carried by the gas bag, and in order to compensate for this loss of weight, I have provided the arrangement for using a part of the gas contained 111 the gas bag 'for propelling the engine. this way the buoyancy of the entire air shlp may 7 be maintained substantially constant, and, furthermore, when the flight of the air ship is coming to an end, the gas within the bag may be partially consumed in order to supi the temperature of the gas contained in the ply the engine. In this way the buoyancy of the air ship is subtracted from in order that the ship will sink slowly to the earth, and at the same time, the gaswithdrawn from the bag is used as a fuel for the engine. When it is desired to allowthe gas within the gas bag toescape in small quantities, the cord 34 is pulled by the operator within the car, opening the-valve 33 in the manner above described. If it is desired to allow the gas within the gas bag to escape in large quantities so that the air ship will sink quickly to the earth, the cord 38 is pulled whichwill rip off the ripping strip 39 and open a comparatively large opening or vent 40.

The bulbs or heads i in theends of the gas bag are permanently filled with a light,gas of greater pressure than that adjacent, s0 as to resist the external pressure.

Special attention is called to the fact that ballonnets is under control, that is, the temperature may be high or low. as desired. Of course, the buoyancy of the ballonnet is higher with the higher temperature.- This renders the ballonnets useful in maintaining the equilibrium or balance of the (gas bag.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

the wall of the gas bag near the ends thereof.

2. In an airship a gas bag, a body carried thereby, and an aeroplane rudder carried by said body and rotatable into a plurality of positions, said rudder being freely movable bodily in the direction of the length of its axis ofrotation to affect equilibrium of the airship.

3. In an alrship a gas bag, a body supgravitationally the ported thereby, shafts carriedby said body,

one at each side of the center of balance of the airship, said shafts being rotatable and being freely movable bodily in the directions of their lengths to aflect gravitationally, the equilibrium of the ship, said shafts having means permitting their manipulation, and aeroplanerudders rigidly connected with said shafts.

In testimony whereof I have signedmy name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CARL EDGAR MYERS. Witnesses:

lllARY H. MYERS,

A. A. PERKINS. 

